


Believe in Yourself

by slytherindramaqueen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Community: Strictly Dramione, F/M, Harry Potter References, Strictly Dramione's Yuletide Magic 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 17:57:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17064410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherindramaqueen/pseuds/slytherindramaqueen
Summary: A conversation between Draco and Hermione ensues while they travel to the North Pole through the Polar Express for an extraordinary ride.Prompt: Any rating. No squicks. Draco and Hermione find themselves aboard the Polar Express.





	Believe in Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Harry Potter; that was all J.K Rowling. I don't also own the plot used from the Polar Express, I wish. I just own my silly humor that I'm not sure if it's good enough for you to laugh but hey, at least I try.

Looking through the train’s window, Hermione remembered another window, another train but a different scenario outside. It gives her shivers every time she remembers that wonderful night. The night that changed everything.

“Hermione,” Her redhead friend, Ginny, called out to her. “You playing?” She nodded. They were playing Truth or Dare, minus the dare.

“What’s your favorite Christmas memory?” A knowing smile peeked out of blond next to her. Her friends had never heard of the story before. She guessed it was time for them to know.

“You won’t believe it unless I tell you.”

 

24 December 1991.

Hermione should’ve been surprised that a freaking train was outside her street, with no rails to be seen! She really should have. But since she found out that magic was real after her eleventh birthday, was it really that surprising?

She wasn’t surprised to see a man telling her to come aboard. The man looked a lot like that American actor, what was his name, oh yeah, Tom Hanks. He even sounded like him, the resemblance was uncanny. He had a hat with the word CONDUCTOR in big yellow letters and he seemed very preoccupied with time.

“Where is this going?” she had asked. 

“Well, to the North Pole, of course!” That shouldn’t surprise her either, but it did. The Conductor seemed displeased with her resistance of hoping in. He took a clipboard and showed it to her. “Isn’t this you, young lady?”

She checked. There it was, her name, her picture, and a description of her good and bad deeds of the year. She nodded.

“Yes, that’s me, sir. But is this really going to the North Pole?” Although Hermione tried to believe in the impossible these days, she also needed to think logically. After all, the North Pole was inhabitable. Possibly.

“Well, are you coming or not?” The Conductor asked again.

Hermione looked at the train, her house, and at the man again. She smiled and shrugged. “Another adventure never hurt anyone.” She took the man’s hand and got in. Although she was very wrong with that (as much books may suggest), this particular adventure would not, indeed, hurt.

 

Draco was observing all the muggle children around him. They seemed…normal. Sure, no wands, no magic at their soul cores. But they were running, they were playing. They were being kids. Just like he was. Sure, some of them were younger so they acted more childish than him but that was okay. 

This was hard for Draco’s mind to wrap on.  _ This _ was the reason he decided to come into the train. Not to go to the North Pole, nor to meet Santa but to see them, the muggle kids that were having the time of their lives. Because this was the most magical thing they were ever going to see and he wanted to see it with them.

His father always said that muggles were barbaric creatures. But were they really that different? He was a human, they were human. Wizards and witches tended to live a bit longer, that was true, but they shared the same on the inside. Lucius Malfoy said that muggles were evil. But he has seen evil in his house recently as well. 

Much to his dismay, all his thoughts went to the back of his mind when he saw who had just entered the train. “Granger?”

The bushy haired girl turned at hearing her name and looked at him, her eyes opening wide. “Malfoy? You’re here as well, why?”

“No clue, Granger. I’m as stunned to see you here as I am for being here.” He looked at her jammies. She was wearing a red coat, but you could see her bunny-themed bottoms and her white slippers. “Nice shoes, Granger; you’re going to freeze to death,” he laughed.

Hermione frowned. “At least I don’t have dragon-shaped slippers, huh.” His cheeks reddened, embarrassed. She laughed and slowly slipped beside him on the seat.

“What are you doing?”

“Sitting. If I’m going to be stuck with someone on this ride, at least it’ll be with someone I know. Even if I can’t stand their guts.”

Draco snorted. “I’m offended.” His hand flew to his heart, faking being hurt.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. This was going to be a long journey.

 

After what felt like hours of not talking, the conductor punched their magical golden tickets with two letters each –Hermione had gotten two Ts, each on one side, and Draco had gotten a B and an E–. Not long after that, one of the children decided to pull the breaks for another one to get in. Draco was starting to feel bored.

He stared at the girl beside him and realized he didn’t really know her. Of course, he knew her name; he knew she was a muggleborn, best friends with Harry obnoxious Potter, and a sucker for following the rules, but that was it.

“Umm, Granger.” She stared back at him. “We don’t really know each other, do we?”

She was biting her bottom lip, thinking of his question. “I guess you are right. I just know you’re a slytherin that hates my friends for not befriending you.”

“Hey, if I remember correctly, they weren’t your friends at first either. And rumor has it that you’re only friends because they saved you from that troll. Do you even have something in common with those idiots?” He yelled at her.

“I…” Hermione started to say but was interrupted by the Tom Hanks look alike singing something about hot chocolate.

Seriously.

A bunch of waiters and cooks appeared out of nowhere and started to dance while pouring several mugs of hot chocolate. The waiters put on blankets that turned into steady tables and danced on them. The two wizards stared at each other, at the dance and then at the ridiculous faces of kids that seemed like they never had hot chocolate in their lives. 

They burst out laughing.

“Do you see their mustaches?” 

“A blond kid with glasses is already at his third refill. He’s bound to pass out!”

They kept laughing for a while until tears came out of their eyes. Stopping for a second, they looked at the other’s face and continued laughing. After it, Draco hands her mug, confirming it isn’t too hot for her to hold. She understands the gesture and accepts it greatly. He took his own mug and gave it a huge sip.

“We should have a show like this at the great hall once in a while,” Draco added.

Hermione agreed. “I’ve never been this entertained in my entire life.”

“You’re eleven.”

She set the cup back at the non-table table. “I’m not. I’m actually twelve. My birthday was last September.”

“See? Something I didn’t know about you.” Draco seemed excited about it, and Hermione couldn’t understand why. Was it the improbability of this train and its journey or was something else in the air?

“Okay. Why are you so interested in me all of the sudden?” She turned to look him in the eye. “You hate my friends. You hate me and everything I stand for.”

Draco’s hands quivered. “I don’t hate you.”

Her brows raised, she was stunned. “You don’t? Aren’t you and your family pureblood supremacists?” Hermione had tried to read a lot on Wizarding culture and one of the most prominent themes on those old books she got her hands on were always saying how blood purity was important among wizard kind. “You’re a Slytherin. Your own founder was against people like me.”

It was odd, the look Draco Malfoy was giving her at the moment. His eyes weren’t meeting hers, his whole head turned somewhere else. His hands still couldn’t stop moving and his lips were pressed together. He almost looked ashamed. But of what?

Before either of them could say something else, the train came to an abrupt stop, making them fly against the other seat.

Concerned, Draco asked, “You okay?”

Slightly annoyed now, Hermione replies, “I’m fine.”

The Express keeps going. Faster. And faster. And faster. It’s climbing up a hill.

“Why are we going faster?”

“Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?!” Hermione exclaimed but stayed quiet all of the sudden. The train was about to go down a giant hill. Their bodies floated from the seats, remaining above in the air for an amount of time that felt like hours, their throats starting to get soared from screaming.

Draco grabbed Hermione while in the air, trying to protect her when they fall back onto the seats.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, looking for bruises while the train still flies along.

“No, are you?” she replied and Draco shakes his head.

The train starts moving irregularly. Their cars go onto different direction, almost hitting the engine car. The young wizards see through the window. They were on a rapidly-breaking frozen lake, with no tracks.

Together, Draco and Hermione say, “Uh oh.”

 

Fortunately, they made it out of the lake.

The rest of the kids were acting as if nothing had happened. As if they couldn’t have died. But Draco and Hermione knew better. They hadn’t seen death (yet) but in some twisted way they were surrounded by death every day – Ghosts back in school, the well-known tales of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and what he did over a decade ago and of course, the rumors if He ever comes back, and what would happen to them.

She would have to escape and he would have to join, wouldn’t they?

Hermione looked at him, again. “You don’t have to believe in everything your father does. You know that, right?” He sighs.

“It’s easier that way, I suppose.”

“How so?”

He stood quiet for a while, thinking it over. “I don’t want to disappoint him. And you’re not helping with that!” He accused her.

Hermione’s eyes open wide. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, I was supposed to be number one in class. But now I’m number two, because of you. You should’ve seen his face when I got home.  _ How can a mud _ –ah, sorry-  _ how can a muggleborn have bested you? It’s your right _ , he said.” Draco snorted. “My right. Just because I was born from two purebloods doesn’t make me better now, does it? Look at you, Hermione. You just learned that you have magic and it comes naturally to you.” She flinched at him saying her first name but it didn’t feel wrong coming from him. It sounded right.

“And then, look at Weasley,” he continued. “He also comes from a pureblooded family and yet he can’t do a proper  _ Wingardium Leviosa _ ! Honestly!”

She chuckled at that. The sound of her laughter distracted him from his thoughts and he stared at her. Her eyes shrunk a bit when she did that. She looked cute. He smiled.

“What I’m saying here, Granger...”

“Hermione,” She interrupted him. He stared at her once more and nodded once.

“Hermione, is that blood means nothing really. At least when it comes to magical core because of what I’ve seen so far, you are way more talented than I am.” He smiled at her. She smiled back. “That’s actually why I wanted to befriend you.”

 

Hermione felt something stuck around her throat because she couldn’t speak. He had wanted to be friends with her? Her? Hermione Granger. One of the best friends of the guy he despises. She found her voice again and asked, “What? You wanted to be my friend?”

He nodded. “I saw you on the train. You seemed smart and somewhat likable.”

“Somewhat?”

“You’re a piece of work, don’t deny it.” She didn’t. “Anyway, I like having smart friends.” He bumped his shoulder with hers.

Hermione frowned. “But what about Crabbe and Goyle?”

“Those aren’t friends.”

“Do you have any then?”

She saw Draco’s lip trembling a bit at that but he easily put his mask back on. “I guess not really. I used to play with Theodore Nott as toddlers.” He smirked. “But he’s got really quiet. He said he didn’t like how I was behaving.”

She bumped her shoulders with his this time, for him to look up at her.

“Maybe you should listen to him.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

 

They stayed quiet the rest of the trip to the North Pole. It was a different kind of silence than the one from the start, they knew. That one had been uncomfortable and anyone around them could see the hatred between them; this one, however, was pleasant, easy, and a bit happy, if you must.

They had passed the Northern Lights and were arriving to the North Pole. The conductor was leading them to see the elves and wait along with them for Santa; there he would choose one of the kids to receive the first Christmas gift.

Draco was starting to get curious. Why were they here exactly? He asked this to the young Gryffindor. Her reply was witty and smart, of course.

“As far as I can see, these kids are a bit young to start questioning whether Santa exists or not. So, my best assumption is that they  _ have  _ to believe him, at least a little bit more.”

“But, why these kids though? They will not forget something like this afterwards, right?” Draco asked.

She pouted. “I’m not sure. At that age, if they don’t have any evidence of this later, their minds are probably going to convince them that it was just a dream.” Draco frowned.

“That’s sad.”

She agreed. It was sad, but there needed to be a balance when it comes to magic.

The Tom Hanks look alike yelled, “It’s five minutes 'till Christmas, people!”

He had been saying that for the past half hour, but okay.

 

Santa was here. After the almost-debacle with the giant star from the tree had been resolved and four kids had been rescued from a red sack full of presents, he was finally here. He was spectacular. The same way he was described in books, Hermione thought.

Draco was stunned. His father always said that the big man dressed in red was a lie but he never received anything on Christmas from him so maybe that’s why. His mother had always encouraged him to believe in him. And he had tried. But he was there. Santa was really in front of him. 

A shiver passed through their spines when they listened to the jingle bells from the reindeers’ reins. The sweetest sounds imaginable were coming from those bells. They were in pure ecstasy. 

Hermione smiled. She turned and looked at a brown haired boy with a blue coat. He was holding a bell. She nudged Draco on the ribs to make him look.

“He’s holding one of the bells.” She exclaimed.

Draco grunted. “He can’t listen to it.” She hushed him.

 

Santa Claus was coming towards the boy. The boy heard the sound, at last. Santa gave him the first gift of Christmas. The boy lost his gift.

Typical, thought Draco.

  
  


The Conductor was finishing punching their tickets. Draco had gone before her and she couldn’t listen to what the man had said to him. He went inside the train and didn’t wait for her. She felt something weird in her chest.

Hermione received her ticket back.

“Trust.” She read. “Trust who?”

“I think it means to trust those who you think deserve to be trusted, more at this age than any other.” The man smiled at her. She looked into the train and saw Draco waiting for her in the hall. She smiled at the conductor. “Thanks.”

 

At some point in the way back home, they fall asleep. Hermione’s head was comfortably accommodated on Draco’s shoulder. He hadn’t mind. The Conductor approached them and woke them up to tell them they were soon going to be home. 

 

They stare at the other, not wanting to say goodbye yet but knowing they have to. Both afraid if they leave this train, everything would go back as the way it was back at Hogwarts. They didn’t want to admit that something had shifted and could never go back to the other way.

“This was fun,” Draco started. She nods.

“It was. The best night ever.” Her voice dropped with every word she said. She waved lightly and began to go when he stopped her.

“Wait, Hermione,” he said, grabbing her wrist. “Are we still going to be friends at, you know, school?”

Hermione smirked. “That depends. Are you going to be nicer to my friends?” His face frowned but he considered it nonetheless.  _ Was she worth it? _ He thought. He saw her, her wild untamed hair, her small nose, her big brown eyes and her lips, almost quirking into a grin. Yes, she was. 

“I’ll work on it.”

A smiled ensued on her face. “No more mean Draco, then.”

“I’m a Slytherin, Hermione.”

“You know what I mean.” She gave him a small push on his chest. He was still holding her from the wrist.

Tom Hanks coughed loudly.

Her face blushed. “Goodbye Draco. See you after the holidays. The real you, I hope.” She almost turned to leave but at the last second, Hermione decided to be a different kind of brave that day.

Her lips caressed his slightly. There was no movement, yet it seemed as if everything around them was moving along with them. It was the fastest, most innocent, yet the most truthful kiss of that Christmas night.

Hermione chuckled and left, leaving him seeing stars.

 

“Hey, Mr. Conductor. All around the world, kids do forget that Santa exists. Every single year. Why are these kids different? Why were my friend and I on your list? Why does Santa want to show them that he is and will always be real?

The man smiled. “Kids are important. But these kids have the key for a better future. In all different worlds.” He said the last part knowingly. “Keeping their Christmas cheer intact a bit longer, it helps them stay on the right track and do marvelous things.”

She thinks of her blond companion that evening, smiling. “Thank you, sir. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Miss Granger.”

 

Draco sat back. He sighed, touched his lips for a while until they were at his home. He hopped off the train and thanked the conductor.

“Merry Christmas.”

“You too, Draco. You too.”

He called one of his house elves, Dobby, to get him to his room. Dobby was his favorite, he had interesting thoughts and let him do things that he wouldn’t mention to his parents.

“Did young Master had a fun adventure?” The elf asked him.

Draco laughed, touching his lips again. “The time of my life. Thanks Dobby, for waking me up.”

“It was Dobby’s pleasure, young Master.”

 

Their friends didn’t believe their story. At least, not at first. It was a story hard to believe, even for a bunch of wizards and witches. After that eventful night, Draco had stopped bullying Harry Potter and his friends. The Boy Who Lived couldn’t understand why until he saw his girl best friend talking to the blond Slytherin in their second year. 

He demanded an explanation, he got one (“We are friends, idiot.”) and that kept a wedge between him and Hermione for a few weeks, Ron didn’t know why his two friends weren’t talking. Things changed when she got petrified. Draco had been worried for his friend and decided to help them stop the basilisk.

That’s how a few things started to change, with Draco Malfoy as the fourth person in their group (Shocking!). The addition of the Slytherin changed everything.

People that were supposed to die didn’t, and others that didn’t, did.

But the final result was the same. Voldemort was dead. 

 

Draco and Hermione walked hand in hand across King’s Cross station. They were planning eating something before going to her parent’s house for visit when they stopped in their tracks. They had listened to something. Without unlocking their hands, in front of them the saw a guy around their age. He was with his family. He was holding a backpack and on that backpack, a bell was tied as a key chain. 

The same sweet sounds came out of the bell. 

Both of them had eye contact with the boy. And they knew.

After he left, the couple looked at each other. At that, Hermione remembered something she had actually forgotten to ask his boyfriend all those years ago.

“Draco, what did your ticket say at the end of the trip?” He never told her that.

He smiled, kissed her on the cheek and said: “Believe in yourself.”

“Did you?”

“I wouldn’t be here with you if I hadn’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank xxDustNight88 for being my beta for this (your input was amazing and I loved your notes on it, I really appreciate it), and thanks as well to LadyKenZ347 for doing the cover art for this (i hate at making aesthetics and hers was amazing, thank you so much!)


End file.
